Walsh's Notices of Brazil in 1828 and 1829.

The reverend Robert Walsh, C.E., travelled to Brazil for Church duties in 1828-1829. His account, published 1830, gives special attention to British and Irish settlers, but includes Negro uses and customs. Writing about love and war dances, Walsh cites no vernacular names, so the term capoeira cannot appear.

Introduction

The Author

Robert Walsh (Waterford, Ireland, 1772 - Finglas, Ireland, 1852), graduated
B.A. in 1796
(his other degrees cannot be traced). He was ordained in 1802, and, after a short time as a curate in Dublin, was apointed in 1806 to the curacy of Finglas, co. Dublin. The tradition of the place was that during Cromwell's victorious march through the country the alarmed inhabitants buried an old Celtic cross in a certain spot, indicated by some of the older people, who had heard it from their parents. On digging the cross was discovered in good preservation, and erected in the churchyard of Finglas. In 1820 Walsh went to Constantinople as chaplain to the British Embassy, remaining in that post for some years, during which he travelled through Turkey and Asia. Having obtained a medical degree, he practised as a physician on various occasions while in the more remote parts of that continent. From Constantinople he went to the embassy at St. Petersburg, to which he had been appointed chaplain, but only remained there a little while.

Robert Walsh was appointed chaplain to the British Embassy in Rio de Janeiro in 1828. He arrived in Rio de Janeiro on October 16th, 1828, and left after 200 days on May 4th, 1829, having travelled in the interior of Rio de Janeiro state and Minas Gerais, along the same route as Rugendas with the Langsdorff expedition five years earlier. Walsh's Notices of Brazil appeared soon after his return to England, certainly as a part of the British effort to end slave trade. Walsh, an experienced traveller at age 56, could compare the slavery regime of Turkey and Russia with the Negro slavery in Brazil, and he unambiguously concludes against the African enslavement in America. He sustains his conclusions with examples and statistics, and does not fall into the excess of denying the degraded state of the Negroes in Brazil, but ascribes it almost entirely to slavery.

[sources: Dictionnary of National Biography, Notices of Brazil]

The Notices of Brazil

Volume 1 treats matters in a systematic way, furnishing the reader with the information gathered in Rio about Brazil and its capital. The historical part ends with the result of Walsh's inquiry into the uprising of German and Irish soldiers in Rio in june 1828, only a few months before he arrived. Walsh's account certainly echoes the point of view of his Irish compatriots, but is more keen on explaining the event than on extolling moral judgements, though he blames the Brazilian government in the occurence. Capoeira is not present in this account, neither is it in Debret's Notices historiques, or in the French navy commander C.A. Le Marant's report after his intervention, unless one decides that the term capoeira refers to the "miserable slaves of Rio", in general, or the "urban rabble" otherwise termed "Moleques" in most of the text. The police registers of Rio de Janeiro mention "capoeira" and "jogar capoeira" as motives of arrest of Negroes at least from 1789; their carrying of weapons (knives, razors, broken bottles, sticks or clubs) not being considered a separate offense [1]. The use of the term capoeira as generic for unwanted, dangerous behaviour was commonplace in 1871, when Pereira da Silva wrote his Secondo periodo do reinado de Dom Pedro I no Brazil, narrativa historica, the first book in which capoeira is mixed into this incident. The event has later been used in the construction of capoeira as a symbol of Brazilian nationality (see Rego).

Volume 2 is organized as a diary of Walsh's journey into the interior. It contains the description of a negro minstrel playing what is now known as the berimbau. At the end of this section, Walsh sums up, again in general terms, the conditions of white settlers and mostly slave Negroes as he saw them in his journey. This part contains a passage about music and dances certainly relevant to capoeira. The fact that the term does not appear is not significant, since Walsh uses no other vernacular terms.

Our transcription respects the spelling and the line breaks of the first edition, 1830.

Volume 1, about the Irish and German troops uprising

Among the unfortunate events to which thewar gave rise, was one which was attended withthe most fearful and disastrous effects at themoment, and which, in its consequences, maybe highly injurious to the best interests of thecountry. In order that as few persons as pos-sible might be drawn from agriculture in theinterior, and from the pursuits of commerce andmanufactures in the maritime cities, to recruitthe army on the frontiers, it was determined toengage a number of foreigners as soldiers ; first

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to do duty as military, and then be locatedas agriculturists, after a certain term of service ;and to that end Germans, who from thefamily connexion of the emperor, and Irish,who from the redundancy of population athome, might be easily procured, were invitedto Brazil for the purpose.

This project was well conceived, and, hadthe inducements held out been fulfilled withpunctuality and good faith, this influx of Euro-peans, introducing their modes of agriculture andthe mechanic arts into a new country, wouldhave been of vast advantage to the existingstate of Brazil. But the moment the projectwas adopted by the government, it roused allthe prejudices and suspicions of the people.Since the expulsion of the Portuguese, thegreatest jealousy existed against every European ;some imagined the present plan merely a schemeto introduce and create an army of foreignmercenaries, who, having no sympathy or bondof connexion with the people, would be theready instruments of supporting a despoticgovernment; and this, in fact, did enter intothe contemplation of the emperor and his mini-sters, who supposed they would be an avail-able check on the growing spirit of democracy.But even if this objection did not exist, the

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amalgamation of Brazilians with foreigners isstill a difficult thing, and all classes had a strongrepugnance to the introduction of any strangersbut slaves from the coast of Africa. Every secretexpedient, therefore, was resorted to, to renderthe plan abortive, and the event proved withwhat success.

In October, 1826, Colonel Cotter, an Irishofficer in the imperial service, entered into anengagement with the Brazilian government tobring over a number of his countrymen. It doesnot appear what were the precise terms whichhe was authorized to offer to them ; but, as faras I can collect from several I have conversedwith, who remained behind in Brazil, and fromother sources, they were as follow : Every manwas to receive pay and allowances equal toone shilling per day, one pound of beef, andone pound of bread as rations, and were tobe employed four hours each day in learningmilitary exercises, to be ready to act as soldiersif called on, but not to be sent out of the pro-vince of Rio unless in time of war or invasion ;and at the end of five years of such engagement,to be discharged from all military service, andlocated as farmers on land, each having fiftyacres assigned him.

With these powers, Colonel Cotter proceeded

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to Cork, caused notices to be affixed to chapeldoors, and instructed clergymen to give it outfrom the altars, in different parts of the south ofIreland. The notifications were received withgreat joy by the people : the exceeding dis-tress of the poor peasantry of that part ofIreland, as well from exuberant population aswant of employment, is notorious, and theywere eager to avail themselves of the proposal.Land was the great object of their com-petition at home, and they who thoughtthemselves fortunate in obtaining a few acresat an exorbitant rent in Ireland, were trans-ported at the idea of receiving a grant of fiftyacres, rent free, in Brazil. Many, therefore,as they told me, sold their farms at home, andlaid out the small portion of money they couldraise, in purchasing agricultural implements,conceiving that their military service was tobe merely local, and would no more preventtheir attending to their land, than if they weremembers of yeomanry corps in their own coun-try. Among them were mechanics, who lookedforward to exercise their calling to advantage inRio, and had brought out the implements oftheir trade ; and among them certainly weremany, whose idle habits led them to prefer amilitary life and were ready to engage as

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soldiers, careless of the terms of their ser-vice. Of these descriptions, two thousandfour hundred persons were collected, some ofthem, as was to be expected, of indifferentcharacters and dissolute manners; but the ma-jority decent, respectable people, who broughtout with them their wives and families, and whowould be an acquisition to any country assettlers, but particularly to Brazil.

Every thing was provided for their accommo-dation on leaving their own country; the shipswere well found, stores and provisions ofgood quality were not wanting, and the peoplethought themselves highly fortunate in thismode of emigration. They had been longexpected in Brazil, and it was natural to supposethat every thing would have been ready fortheir reception; but their arrival was the signalfor annoying them, and that system of pettypersecution commenced which roused them intomutiny, and finally effected the purposes forwhich it was resorted to, by driving themfrom the country.

The minister of war was at that time S.Barbozo, and from his subsequent hostility tothe foreigners, it is to be presumed he was theinstrument of their first annoyances, which werein his department. When the transports arrived

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nothing was ready for the accommodation ofthe men. They were kept for three or fourdays on board, and when at length they werelanded, they were thrust into dirty empty bar-racks, without the smallest preparation of anykind for their comforts or wants. They had nobeds to sleep on, not even a mat to keep themfrom the bare ground, which is always providedfor Brazilian soldiers. This comfortless statewas still increased by want of provisions, forthey were kept starving for two days withoutany distribution of rations, and when at lengthit was made, they were so bad in quality that themen could not eat them, but sold them for a trifleto the English to feed their horses ; they were alsodeficient in quantity, and so irregularly given,that they were frequently afterwards forty-eighthours without receiving any issue. Many ofthem contracted fevers, and other sickness, fromprivation and anxiety, and in this state of de-bility were seen crawling about the streets ofRio. Application was made to the Braziliangovernment to provide them with medicinesand necessaries, but no notice was taken ;and they would have perished on the roads,where they were sometimes obliged to liedown, but for the humanity of Doctors Coatesand Dixon, who supplied them with medicine

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from their own pockets. For some time theyreceived no pay at all, and when at length itwas ordered, it was much less than they werepromised.

In this state of disappointment and growingdiscontent, there was not the smallest painstaken to give them any habit of order orregularity. They remained in their quarters,idle and unemployed, dirty and neglected, andin the same clothes in which they had arrived,ragged and squalid, without the habits or appear-ance of common decency. Sometimes they werepermitted to leave their barracks when and howthey pleased, and to remain as long as suitedtheir humour in the vendas, or public-housesHere a cheap and ruinous kind of rum is sold,called caxas, and in this they were permitted,if not encouraged, to indulge freely. Thussituated, and highly susceptible of excitement,an engine of irritation was applied to them, of anannoyance so intolerable, that no person, underany circumstance, could bear it patiently.

classes of the human race, by far the mostabandoned and degraded. Used merely as in-ferior animals, without the smallest referenceto their being endowed with the faculty ofreason, they are driven all day, and turnedloose in the evening ; and by a strange incon-sistency, allowed the most licencious an un-restrained habits. They go along in the streetsfrequently drunk, shouting, hallooing, and fight-ing ; and when one considers that there arefifty or sixty thousand of this class, in a largeand licencious city, and the great majority ofits population, it is fearful to contemplate theconsequences which may arise, some time orother, from their ferocious passions. Yet thesewere the instruments used to goad and irritatethe strangers. They first insulted them when-ever they met them, by calling them white slaves,"escravos brancos," and they pointed to theirrags and dirt, as a proof of their being notso good, or so well treated, as themselves.Whenever they appeared outside their barracks,they were attacked in this way, and constantskirmishes and riots occured between individualsand parties on both sides. In these encounters,if the Irish officers interfered, and seized anyslaves, who they knew were the aggressorsand commenced the disturbance, to deliver

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them to the police, they were detained merelya few hours, and then liberated to repeat theoffence ; if, on the contrary, any of the stran-gers were complained of, they were committedto the dungeons of the fortresses, and if notclosely confined, were dragged out only to beworked as galley slaves ; and in this way, re-spectable people have told me, they often sawthem fettered in the same chain with black slave-felons, as if it was the system to degrade themto that rank, and not suffer them to be heldin higher consideration.

In this state of things, a body of the Irish,quartered in the barracks of Praya Vermelha,were marched to the Campo d'Acclamação, andin their way it was necessary to pass the Carioca,a fountain where a large collection of blackscontinually attend to draw water. The momentthey appeared, an immediate insurrection of theblacks took place, and an attack was made onthese unarmed men, quietly passing throughthe streets ; they repelled it with sticks andfists, and the blacks fled : but from that timeno recruit could appear in any part of the town,without being assaulted. Even the officers failedto preserve that respect for their rank, whichwould be secured to any others ; they were theindiscriminate object of attack by any slaves

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they met, as if the general system was to de-grade and exasperate the whole corps withoutdistinction. In the Rua dos Barbonios is a bar-rack, near a fountain attended by blacks, andhere the parties came into constant collision.The blacks, who seemed, as it were, trained toinsult the Irish, constantly attacked the sentries,and even climbed up the windows, and assaulted,with stones and other missiles, those who wereinside quietly sleeping in their quarters. Theconsequence was a very serious riot, whichlasted two days, and the loss of some lives. Inthese conflicts, the people of the town lookedon with satisfaction, and were frequently seensetting on the negroes, as I have seen Turkshallooing their swarms of dogs at christian pas-sengers.

The time had now arrived when a fearfulretaliation seemed at hand, and threatened thewhole town with destruction. The Irish hadbeen about half a year in the country, and theystill remained in the same state of neglect,contempt, and insubordination. A few, indeed,who had entered as grenadiers, had receivedclothes, and some partial improvement had beenattempted in the rations ; but the great bodyremained the same, the causes of discontentevery day increasing. The state of the German

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troops was little better. They complained thatthe promises made to them were not fulfilled,that their pay was embezzled ; and the wholeonly wanted some spark to set the inflammablematerials in a blaze. They were distributed inthree large barracks in different parts of thetown : the Germans, in the Praya Vermelha,near the mouth of the harbour, at one extremityof the city, and at the barrack of S. Christovão,at the other ; and the Irish, nearly midway be-tween both, at the Campo d'Acclamação, towardsthe centre of the town.

On the 9th of June, 1898, as an alfares, orensign, was returning from his rounds, after theave-maria, or sun-set, he was met by a Germansoldier, who refused to take off his bonnet ashe passed. The alferes ordered him into con-finement, and he was sentenced to receive fiftylashes for insubordination. A representationwas made that he had been a well-conductedman, since the formation of the corps ; but thisdid not avail, and he was led out to undergohis sentence in the square of the barrack ofS. Christovão. He demanded to be tried by acourt-martial, and refused to take off his jacket ;but he was ordered to be seized and bound, andthe jacket cut from his back; his sentence wasquintupled, and two hundred and fifty were

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ordered instead of fifty. He received two hundredand ten of his punishment, but the soldiers nowbecame impatient, and, actuated by one spirit,began to stamp with their feet, calling outnot to kill the man ; and as the officer still per-sisted to inflict the full punishment, the wholecorps burst into a spontaneous mutiny, releasedthe prisoner, proceeded with shouts and menacesto the palace in their neighbourhood, and de-manded to see the emperor. He refused topresent himself ; but gave them to understandif they had any complaint to make, they shouldsend a deputation of two or three and he wouldlisten to them, and they returned to theirbarracks. Meantime the Irish, at the Campod'Acclamacão, hearing what had happened, pro-ceeded to S. Christovão, some by land and somein boats, to the amount of fifty or sixty ; and,resolving now to make a common cause withthe Germans, encouraged them by shouts andacclamations to persevere. The mutiny nowassumed a most alarming aspect : the magazineof ammunition was forced open, the quartersof the officers were attacked, the houses of themajor and quarter-master were plundered, andseveral officers were pursued and just escapedwith their lives.

On the next day, the news of the mutiny at

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S. Christovão was received at the Praya Ver-melha. The Germans quartered here had justreturned from Pernambuco, and were in a stateof irritation little less violent than their com-rades. It had been the custom to stop the payof the soldiers, as in the French army in thetime of Napoleon, as a punishment for offences,and in this way, under various pretexts, theofficers pocketed the greater part of it. Themajor, whose name was Teola, was a man of lowextraction and bad character, and was greatlydetested by the men. He was an Italian, andhad been waiter at the Hotel du Nord, in theRue Direita. It is said that his wife, who was acomely person, had attracted notice, and he wasimmediately raised from his humble station tothe commission which he held in the Germanregiment. He had been long accused of em-bezzling their pay, and frequent complaints weremade ; but his influence in high quarters hadhitherto baffled all applications, and the soldierswere now determined to take into their ownhands that redress, which they could not obtain.As the prejudice against him was known to bevery strong, he was advised not to appear onparade this day, where some violence was likelyto break out. He, however, disregarded thecaution, and his appearance was the signal for a

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general mutiny. He was attacked by the sol-diers, and fled for refuge to Colonel Macgregor,who would not, it is said, but who probablycould not, protect him. He then ran to makehis escape over the walls of the barracks, buthe was overtaken and dragged down ; and whilelying on the ground, he was stabbed by thebayonets of the sentinels, and crushed to deathwith heaps of large stones cast on him by theexasperated soldiers. Two other officers, whoattempted to interfere for him, were severelywounded. It does not appear that the Irishhere took any part in the assassination.

The body of the major was brought to beburied in the cemetery, and the two woundedofficers to be received into the hospital of theMisericordia, and a rumour was now industri-ously circulated through Rio, that the Germanregiments were marching in from both extremi-ties of the city, to join the Irish at the Campod'Acclamação, and then proceed to burn andplunder the town. It was now that the sangui-nary policy of those who were hostile to theEuropeans, began to display itself. The Bra-zilian troops were immediately ordered underarms, and the minister of war sent directions tothe commandant, the Conde de Rio Pardo, " todestroy every man, to give no quarter, but to

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exterminate the whole of the strangers ;"* andlest the brave and humane commandant shouldnot execute these orders, an expedient was re-sorted to, as terrible to others as it was dan-gerous to themselves -- that was, a license to theMoleques, or blacks, and the rest of the rabble,to take up arms. I had seen the frightful effectsof this among the Turks ; but the idea of fiftyor sixty thousand black slaves, and such slaves ina state of high excitement, armed with knivesand daggers, let loose on a city, was an experi-ment at which humanity shudders.

A large crowd of them was soon collected inthe Campo d'Acclamação, and a tumult imme-diately commenced with the Irish. These latterhad now become infuriate like the Germans -- had attacked the police barracks in the neigh-bourhood, and having seized the arms, beganto fire in all directions. They then brokeopen the vendas, and many of them havingdrank caxas to excess, burst into private housesand committed great excesses. A regular war-fare soon ensued between them and the armedMoleques, joined by a number of Brazilians ofthe lowest description, and the Campo and the

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streets adjoining- were filled with dead andwounded bodies.

The Brazilian government now applied to theFrench and English ministers for a force of ma-rines, from the ships of war of their respectivenations lying in the harbour, which was readilygranted. The French were immediately landedat the trem, and the English at the arsenal, andwere prepared to protect the city if any attemptshould be made against it. In the mean time,a battalion of the regiment of militia of theMinas Geraes, some cavalry, and a field-piece,proceeded to the Campo to restore order. Theydid not act with the furious inhumanity re-commended by the minister of war. They firstargued with the insurgents, then fired blankcartridges, and at length had recourse to ballas the last expedient. The insurgents had noarms of their own, and used only those theyhad wrested from the police, amounting tofifty or sixty muskets. Their ammunition wasexhausted, and those whom insult and intoxica-tion had driven to madness, had returned totheir senses, and retired to their barracks. TheGermans quietly submitted, and on the even-ing of the 12th of June, every thing wastranquil, after three days of intense anxiety.

While the conduct of the military was

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humane and praiseworthy, that of the armedrabble was marked by the most atrocious fero-city. The Moleques rushed on every foreignerthey met in the neighbourhood, with theirknives, and butchered them with the most sa-vage mutilation ; and some, I am told, werehunted down, and then torn limb from limb,by the bloodhounds that pursued them. Se-veral of the Irish, who were artisans, industri-ously exercised their trades, and were doingwell at Rio. One of them, a tailor, was re-turning to his barracks, with a bundle of clothesunder his arm, entirely ignorant of the in-surrection that had taken place. He was metby two Moleques in a street leading to theCampo, who rushed at him with their facas, andhaving stabbed him in several places, ripped uphis belly, and left him, with his bowels hangingout, weltering on the pavement. One fellow,a corpulent mulatto, of a very ferocious aspect,was pointed out to me afterwards at thebutchery of S. Luzie, where he has now someappropriate employment. He was seen, aftertranquillity was restored, brandishing a bloodysabre over his head, and boasting it was stainedwith the. blood of five foreigners, whom he hadkilled.

The number of persons who lost their lives is

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variously stated at from sixty to a hundred ;and about twice that number wounded. Manyrespectable Brazilians, in the vicinity of theCampo d'Acclamação, were killed, in defendingtheir houses and properties, when the insurgentsburst them open. Many of the insurgents laydown in the streets and fell asleep, overcomeby fatigue and intoxication ; and in that stateof insensibility were stabbed by the Moleques.As this disposition for blood continued after thecause was past, and the excitement over, it wasfound necessary to issue, on the 13th of June,a second edital, prohibiting any person fromcarrying arms, but especially slaves, after theedital was posted, under severe punishment.They had been most imprudently called on totake them up para salvar a patria, and it wasfound imperatively necessary to compel them tolay them down, for the same reason.

Of 2,400 Irish who had been invited, andarrived in Brazil, not more than 200 were con-cerned in the insurrection ; and these weregenerally young men, totally neglected, andleft to themselves, to follow the impulse of anypassion excited in them. They were withoutofficers or arms, yet they caused much terrorand anxiety, in a large and populous city, forthree days. It was determined, therefore, to

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send them all back to their own country ; andthe object of those who laboured to bring thatend about, was completely answered. Theywere immediately embarked, and placed onboard the ships of war in the harbour, till trans-ports could be provided for them. The em-peror himself seemed very well disposed towardsthem ; and I am told by those who witnessed thefact, that he shed tears of anxiety and vexation,when he heard the state into which they weredegraded. It had been his custom frequently toattend divine service, when it was performed forthe Irish at the Praya Vermelha, where he freelyknelt down amongst them. His condescension,however, was suspected. An absurd rumour hadbeen circulated, that if this ceremony was per-formed three times, they were bound to him,as soldiers, for unlimited service. On the thirdSunday none but the officers attended -- the menall disappeared -- a strong proof of their repug-nance to such an engagement, and their de-termination to resist it. He now gave everydirection for their ample accommodation, ontheir return home ; and Mr. Gordon, the Britishminister, and the English admiral, had power inhis name to supply them with every necessary.

On this occasion it was expedient to collectthem all, and it was discovered that many of

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them had been arrested and confined in variousprisons. Mr. Aston, the Secretary of Legation tothe British Mission, with that promptness andhumanity which every one who knows him willgive him credit for, immediately applied to theproper authorities to have them found out ; butso little interest did they take in the life orliberty of those foreigners, that they could giveno information about them. At length hefound thirty of them confined in the dungeonof the fortress of Villegagnon. On one occa-sion the whole of the officers had been arrested,and shut up in the cells of the prisons in thedifferent islands. After eighteen or twentydays' incarceration, however, they were libe-rated, and never could learn why they hadbeen confined ; but numbers of inferior rankremained behind, till they were altogether for-gotten. Such was the case of these poor men.When they emerged from these catacombs, theywere in the most miserable state of destitutionand disease, their bodies ulcerated with soresand covered with vermin, and their skins so rawand tender from putrescency and mortification,that when it was necessary to clothe them forthe sake of decency, to enable them again toappear, they could not bear the painful touch ofany covering.

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They were a fine body of young men, and ofgood character. They had been called on totake the military oath, but they refused. Theyaffirmed they had come out as settlers ; if theywere located as such, they had no objection tobe enrolled as militia, learn military duty, andbe ready to turn out to defend their own or anyother part of the country invaded : but theypersisted in refusing to take the oath tenderedto them as mere soldiers, for unlimited service.For this offence they were represented asmutineers, and thrown at once into these dismaldungeons, where they had remained totally neg-lected, and must in a short time have perished ina state of putridity, had they not been relieved byth�e humane and timely interference of Mr. Aston.Two hundred and fifty were embarked in theMoro Castle, on the 3d July, 1828, and sailed forIreland. The Phoebe followed with 150 more,with the Highlander, and a Swedish ship, carryingin all 1400 persons back to their native land. Itwas industriously given out, that many of thesepersons had carried plate and other valuablesfrom the houses they had plundered, and asearch was made among their boxes and trunks.Nothing was found to justify the suspicion,and then it was said, that to avoid detectionthey had cast all these valuables into the sea.

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About 400 were left behind, engaged in diffe-rent employments. A body of them, to theamount of 220 persons, forming 101 families,were conveyed to Bahia, and located at Taporoa,in the comarca of Ilheos, where they formed acolony, directed by a commissioner appointedto regulate their affairs. It was the only portionof the emigrants with whom good faith wasobserved ; and it appears, from the report ofthe Viscount Camamu, president of the assem-bly of the province, that they were deserving ofevery care and attention. Several who re-mained at Rio I afterwards met and conversedwith. They were doing well; and the whole,had they been properly encouraged, would havedone the same. Some men from Waterfordand Lismore were engaged in a quarry in therear of our residence, preparing blocks ofgranite for building, and by their industry andgood conduct were earning five patacs (aboutseven shillings) a day, and making a comfortableindependence. Another family, of the name ofCook, from the county of Tipperary, had beenrecommended to Messrs. Marsh and Watson, wholocated them on a farm in the Organ Mountains,where I visited them with Mr. Watson. Thefarm was in the depth of a forest, fourteen orfifteen miles within the recesses of the mountain.

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The way led through the wildest scenery ; andon the bank of a river, in the centre of a forest,we found these colonists. They had built alarge and comfortable house with a rusticportico, and thatched it very neatly with palmbranches, whose regular fronds formed a tastyroof, the stems and pinnate leaves of whichwere very elegantly disposed in the thatch.On the other side of the river, which we crossedby two trees forming a rustic bridge, was a largeshed for cattle, and other conveniences ; andrising up the hill was an extensive plantation ofcoffee, behind which, descending into a glen, wasa rich field of Indian corn in high health, withgourds, mandioca, and a variety of other productsof Brazilian agriculture. On our return thegood woman had prepared for us a plentiful dishof bacon and eggs, with fried cakes of maize ;and our entertainment concluded with whisky,which our host had contrived to distil from hiscoffee plantation. When I contemplated thiscomfortable house and abundant farm, rescuedfrom the heart of a Brazilian forest, cultivated bypersons who in their own country could notmake out a scanty livelihood in a miserablehovel, I could not help feeling the deepest regret,that 2400 who had left their homes were not,as they might have been, so 1ocated. It would

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have abstracted so many individuals from anoverflowing people perishing from want, andadded a valuable population to a country, wheremillions of fertile acres are lying waste for lackof hands to cultivate them.

The greater part of the Irish who returnedhome, were in a disabled state. Hardship,wounds, privation, and sickness had affectedthem more or less ; but the ailment under whichthey principally laboured was lameness. Notfurnished with shoes, nor able to provide them,their feet were attacked with the bichu, orinsect of the country, which burrowed in my-riads in their naked feet, and caused the mostfrightful ulcerations. Many of the men, there-fore, are lame beggars about the streets, or incu-rables in the hospitals of Cork. Many who hadleft comfortable farms, are reduced to commonlabourers ; and of all who returned home, thereis not one, perhaps, who is not now enduringwant and misery.

The Germans, as they were regularly en-rolled, were subject to martial law as mutineers ;and the ringleaders in the riot were tried, andsome convicted. One of them was shortly afterexecuted. On the formation of the Germancorps, as they were generally Lutherans, the Rev.Mr. Crane, British Chaplain at Rio, officiated

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for them; and when this man was orderedfor execution, he was attended, by order of theemperor, by the chaplain, to prepare him fordeath. Mr. Crane, from whom I derived someof the foregoing statements, informed me hewas a tall vigorous young man, six feet high, ofsingularly determined character. He told himhe had neglected his early religious impressions,but did not then wish to recall them ; andbegged him not to press him on the subject, ashis only wish was to die like a soldier, andsuch considerations as he proposed, would onlydisturb him. A Catholic clergyman was sent tohim with no better success. He dismissed himat once, telling him to go and reform his master,who more wanted it. He walked to the Campod'Acclamação, where he was executed, witha pipe in his mouth, frequently turning roundand conversing with the greatest indifferencewith his comrades, who were to shoot him, andwho followed immediately behind him. Theonly mark of interest or concern he evinced onany subject, was with respect to the place of hisburial. He asked where he was to be laid, andhe was answered, in the Misericordia. As thisis the cemetery attached to the hospital, and thegreat receptacle for negroes, he expressed astrong repugnance to be buried among them,

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and confounded with the slaves who hadbehaved in such a manner to his comrades.He therefore earnestly requested permission tobe buried in the English burying-ground, whichMr. Crane promised, and he then died with themost perfect unconcern. His regiment was sentoff to the south.

Thus ended a project for the gradual intro-duction of Europeans into Brazil, from whichmuch good was reasonably expected. To forma counterpoise to the fearful superiority of theslave population, and increase as much aspossible the number of white inhabitants ; tocolonize the immense tracts of fertile land nowlying waste, and cultivate the soil with thevigorous arms of freemen, bringing with themthe lights and improvements of Europe, insteadof the enormous importations annually of blacksfrom Africa, was certainly the object of anenlightened policy. But the vigilant suspicionof the people, ever on the watch to guardagainst any supposed instruments of despotism,and the universal and inveterate prejudices stillexisting against strangers, rendered the measurehighly unpopular in Brazil. It was supposedthat the difference of the religion of the Ger-mans had some influence in increasing this pre-judice, but the similarity of that of the Irish did

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not procure them more favour. The Aurora,the Astraea, and other genuine national papers,teemed with equal invectives against both,talked boastfully of " delivering themselves fromthe German and Irish invasion," and studiouslyavoided all notice of the French and Englishmarines who landed to assist them.

Volume 2. A Negro Minstrel in Minas Gerais.

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After mid-day we arrived at the venda ofChepado do Mato[2], kept by an exceedingly rudeand forward old lady ; she had coarse sharpfeatures, large ear-rings, and her grey hair, arti-ficially curled, surrounded her sallow face as if ina storm. She set her hands a-kimbo, describedthe excellence of her wine with great volubility,and was quite displeased because we would notdrink it for our breakfast, but preferred coffee,which she would hardly condescend to make forus. As a contrast to her, there stood in the

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hall a poor black minstrel boy, who played avery simple instrument. It consisted of a singlestring stretched on a bamboo, bent into an arc,or bow. Half a cocoa nut, with a loop at itsapex, was laid on his breast on the concave side ;the bow was thrust into this loop, while theminstrel struck it with a switch, moving hisfingers up and down the wire at the sametime. This produced three or four sweet notes,and was an accompaniment either to dancing orsinging. He stood in the porch, and entertainedus like a Welsh harper, while we were at break-fast, and he was so modest that when we praisedhis music, he actually blushed through his duskycheeks. It was the first time that a branco, orwhite, had ever paid him such a compliment.

Volume 2: Summing up the impressions of the journey.

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...Among the objects which excited my particularattention in the interior, was the state of slaveryin which the greater part of the population re-main ; and as it is a subject likely to be one ofconsiderable interest in a few months, when the

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total abolition of the slave trade is to take placein Brazil, I shall add a few observations, whichI have gleaned here, to the mass of informationyou are already in possession of.

...

[history of the portuguese slave trade to America]

...

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The number of blacks, and mulatto offspringof blacks, is now estimated at2,500,000, while the whites are but 850,000 ;so that the former exceed the latter in the pro-portion of three to one. From this great supe-riority, serious apprehensions have long beenentertained, that some time or other, in thepresent diffusion of revolutionary doctrines onthis continent, they will discover their ownstrength, assert independence for themselves,and Brazil become a second St. Domingo. This

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is particularly the case at Bahia and Pernam-buco, where almost all the negroes are broughtfrom the same part of the coast of Africa; andthere is a general union and understandingamong them, as speaking the same language, andfeeling an identity of interests ; and here severalconspiracies have been formed, and risingsattempted. In April, 1828, a partial insurrec-tion took place in some engenhos at Bahia,and apprehensions were entertained that it hasramified to Pernambuco. But at Rio the caseis different. The negro population consists ofeight or nine different castes, having no commonlanguage, and actuated by no sympathetic tie ;insomuch so, that they frequently engage infeuds and combats, where one, or even twohundreds of a nation on each side are engaged.This animosity the white cherish, and endea-vour to keep alive, as intimately connected withtheir own safety.

The difference of caste is very strongly markedin the colour of their skin, and still more in theexpression of their countenance, to a degree ofwhich I had no conception. Before I went toBrazil, I could no more distinguish one blackfrom another, than I could sheep in a flock ;but in this country, it struck me that the varietyof the human face was still more strongly marked

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in the black than in the white colour : thegradation of the latter was only from handsometo ugly, but of the former, from handsome tohideous ; and I think I have met among thesedark visages, some of the most engaging, andsome of the most revolting aspects in nature.This diversity is attended with disunion andseparation, on which the Brazilians lay greatstress.

The superiority of the coloured population isnot greater in number than it is in physicalpowers. Some of the blacks and mulattos arethe most vigorous and athletic looking personsthat it is possible to contemplate, and who wouldbe models for a Farnesian Hercules. Theirnatural muscular frame is hardened and im-proved by exercise ; and when the fibres areswelled out in any laborious action, they exhibita magnificent picture of strength and activity.Their faka, or long knife, they use with tre-mendous effect. They sometimes hurl it, asan Indian does his tomahawk, with irresistibleforce, and drive the blade, at a considerabledistance, through a thick deal board. In thisrespect, they are strongly contrasted with theflabby Brazilians of Portuguese descent, wholook the very personification of indolence andinactivity ; and should they ever unhappily come

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into contact with their vigorous opponents inthe field, it would seem as if whey would becrushed at once, under the mere physical weightof their antagonists.

This muscular strength, however, is not uni-versal, but only displayed by the natives ofparticular districts in Africa. The principalmarts from whence they are brought, are An-gola, Congo, Angico, Gaboon, and Mosambique.Those of Angola are the most highly esteemed,and are in every respect the most tractable, andnext to them the natives of Congo. TheAngicos are tall and robust, and their skinsjetty black and shining. They are generallydistinguished by their singular mode of tat-tooing, which consists of three gashes made ineach cheek, and extending, in a circular form,from the ear to the angle of the mouth. TheGaboons are also tall and comely, with greatmuscular strength; they are, however, lessesteemed, from their exceeding impatience ofthe state of slavery to which they are reduced.They are greatly addicted to suicide, and takethe first opportunity of destroying themselves.Instances have occurred, where a lot of eighteenor twenty, purchased together, have made adetermination not to live ; and in a short timethey all stabbed themselves, or sunk rapidly

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under an insupportable feeling of despondency.The people of Mosambique include generally allthose of Southern Africa. They are distin-guished by their diminutive stature and feeblelimbs, but still more by their colour, inclining tobrown, and some even as light as mulattos. Itis remarkable that vigour and muscularityin a negro seem intimately connected withhis hue ; the distinctive characteristic of therace is a black skin, and the more dark theexterior the more perfect seems the person ; andas it recedes from its own and approaches to ourcolour, it is proportionately imperfect.

From the operation of the abolition laws, andthe activity of our cruisers to the north of theline in enforcing them, the trade for slaves, inthe last ten years, has been directed to thecoast of Africa on both sides of the Cape ofGood Hope, and the negro race in Brazil hassensibly deteriorated ; they seem to approachthe character of Cafres or Hottentots; and Ihave more than once seen among them personsdistinguished by the peculiarity that marked theVenus from that country, exhibited in Englandsome years ago. One was a girl of fourteen, ofmost extraordinary proportions. This race isparticularly noted for a propensity to eat limeand earth ; whether it be from a determination

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not to live, or from a morbid and irrepressibleappetite for such things, like some diseasedchildren, they persist in it with the most ob-stinate perseverance, notwithstanding they areseverely flogged, till they at length sink underit. They are distinguished also by their extra-ordinary mode of tattooing ; the flesh is raisedinto protuberances, so as to form a succession ofknobs, like a string of beads, from their foreheadto the tip of their nose, and very frequently theupper lip is perforated by a hole, through whichthe teeth are seen.

Notwithstanding the antipathies which thedifferent tribes bring with them from their owncountry, and the petty feuds they excite in Brazil,cherished and promoted by the whites, there isoften a bond which connects them as firmly as ifthey had belonged all to the same race, and thatis a community of misery in the ships in whichthey are brought over. The people so unitedby this temporary association, are called Malun-goes ; they continue attached to each otherever after, and when separated, are quite re-joiced if they meet again.

The negroes bring with them their languageand usages, which are found in Brazil as recentand original as on the coast of Africa, fromwhence they only just arrive. The language

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is so diversified by dialects, that differenttribes do not understand each other. Whenthose of the same caste work together, theymove to the sound of certain words, sung in akind of melancholy cadence, commenced in atenor tone by one part, and concluded in a baseby the other. A long line of negroes, withburdens on their heads, sing it as they go along,and it is heard every day, and in almost everystreet in Rio. This, which seems a regularnational song, I was particularly curious toknow the import of, but no one could interpretthe words for me, and the negroes, when asked,either did not, or pretended not to know, as ifit was something occult, which they made amystery of. The following is the notion ofone of the airs or tunes to which the words arechanted, taken down on the spot by Mr.Duval.

Their music consists of several different in-struments; the first is a rude guitar, composedof a calabash, fasted to a bar of wood, whichforms a neck to the shell ; over this is stretched asingle string of gut, which is played on by a rude

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bow of horse-hair ; and by moving the finger upand down along the gut, three or four notes areelicited, of a very plaintive sound. The minstrelis generally surrounded by a group sitting ina circle, who all unite their voices as accom-paniments to the music. The next is half acalabash, containing within it a number of smallbars of iron parallel to each other, with oneextremity flat, presenting a surface like the keysof a harpsichord : this he holds in both hands,and presses with his thumbs, in succession, theflat bars, which emit a tinkling sound like aspinet. This instrument is very universal.Every poor fellow who can, procures one ofthose ; and as he goes along under his burden,continues to elicit from it simple tones, whichseem to lighten his load, as if it was his gratatestudo, laborum dulce lenimen. A third is a singlestring stretched on a bamboo, such as I havedescribed to you before at Chapado do Mato, inthe Minas Geraes.

These instruments are used by themselves oraccompanied by the voice; and, I think, arecalled by the general name of merimba, thoughthe word is more particularly applied to thebars of iron. There are others used as accom-paniments to dancing, of which the negroes arepassionately fond. One is a hollow trunk of a

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tree, covered at one end with a piece of tenseleather ; on this the performer gets astride, andstrikes it with the palms of his hands, eliciting avery loud sound, which is heard to a consider-able distance. This "spirit-stirring drum" hasa powerful effect on all the negroes within theextent of its sound. There is a small green atS. José near the Chafariz, where the negroesassemble every Sunday evening to dance. Herethe performer bestrides his drum, and assemblesthe dancers by the sound. The first strokes,which are heard all around, produce an electriceffect; they rush to the spot from all quarters,and in a little time they are worked up to adegree of hilarity little short of frenzy. Theydance, sing, shout, and scream till the wholeneighbourhood echoes with their noise.

As a substitute for this drum, they sometimesuse bones, which the dancers strike together.These are accompanied by an instrument thesize of a pepper-box, having some rattling sub-stance inside. This is attached to a handle,which one holds over the heads of the rest ; andwhile they strike the bones he rattles the box,and so the time is regulated. This mode ofdirecting the dance, I have seen at the Matanza.

The dances begin with a slow movement oftwo persons, who approach each other with a

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shy and diffident air, and then recede bashfuland embarrassed ; by degrees, the time of themusic increases, the diffidence wears off, andthe dance concludes with indecencies not fit tobe seen or described.
Sometimes it is of a dif-ferent character, attended with jumping, shouting,and throwing their arms over each other's heads,and assuming the most fierce and stern aspects.The first is a dance of love, and the latter ofwar. Dancing seems the great passion of thenegro, and the great consolation which makeshis slavery tolerable. Whenever I have seen agroup of them meeting in the street or the road,or at the door of a venda, they always got up adance ; and if there was no instrument in com-pany, which rarely happened, they supplied itsplace with their voice. At all the fazendas,where there is a number together, Saturdaynight is usually devoted to a ball, after the la-bours of the week. A fire of wood or theheads of milho is lighted up in a hut, wherethey assemble, and they continue dancing tilllight in the morning.

The obeah man in Brazil is called Mandin-geiros, because he comes from the Mandingos,near Senegal. He is not at all so formidablea person, nor does he exercises such powerfulfascinations as elsewhere, probably because the

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country from which he came has been for sometime interdicted, and the practice is not keptup in other tribes, and so is fallen intodisuse.

The patriarchal feeling, however, that con-siders a tribe as a family, the members asbrothers, and the prince as the father, stillstrongly subsists. They believe that the tie ofallegiance to the prince never ceases under anychange of circumstances, no more than theobligation due from a son to a father. Theseprinces, therefore, are frequently seen sittingon a stone in the street, surrounded by a crowdwho come to them for judgment. At the cornerof the Travessa de S. Antonio, where it opensinto the Rua do Cane, is a curb stone or post,which was pointed out to me, as being for manyyears the throne of an African prince from An-gola. Every evening after the labours of theday, and on Sundays and holidays at any hour,he was found on the spot, holding his courtand a number of blacks around him, appealing toand submitting to his decrees. He was a strongathletic young man, of general good conduct,and comported himself with spirit and dignity inhis regal situation. If a black, for any offencecommitted against his brother, deserved punish-ment, it was inflicted with a stick by an officer

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in attendance. He of course took cognizanceof matters only occurring between themselves,and his jurisdiction was not objected to by thepolice, because it tended to good manners. Hehad, a short time before my arrival, abdicatedhis stone, and I could not learn where he hadgone, but his throne remained vacant till hisreturn. You have heard the notion of Africanprinces among an importation of slaves, laughedat as an absurd fiction. This I know to be afact, from the unquestionable authority of afrequent eye witness, and also that it is acommon occurrence. The natives of Congoelect a king among themselves, to whose de-crees they submit in a similar manner.